bookblogging

[cerusee]

Novels/prose books:
Bierce, Ambrose: Fantastic Fables
(hmm. Lots to be said. Aesop's Fables, as written by a sophisticated late 19th century cynic; cynicism palls really, really fast. It's interesting, but at least from my perspective, not entertaining).


Romance:
Heyer, Georgette: The Talisman Ring
(I liked it! As I generally do with Heyer. She's very good, you know).

Sutherland, Peg: Queen of the Dixie Drive-In
(When telophase shipped this to me lo those many months ago, I meant to do an in-depth snarky review of it in lieu of payment. But I never got around to it, and then school happened. I think it was mostly okay? The prose didn't send me screaming and it wasn't hugely misogynistic or anything).


YA:
Jones, Diana Wynne:
The Game (way too short, but a good read. Loved the bit with the pork chop, and also how well the reveal worked with the prior characterizations; Jones always does that kind of thing well. There's a little part of me that keeps waiting for her to do some kind of truly pan-mythic story, but maybe that's not fair, especially at this point; she's a basically Western Civ gal, and I know that. And she does pretty good stuff with Greco-Roman/Western European/British Isles mythology; it's not as if she's stagnated with it).
The Spellcoats (reread),
Conrad's Fate (reread),
House of Many Ways (reread),
--totally meant to go on in more detail about all these rereads, but, as I said, school happened.


Light novels:
Ono Fuyumi:
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow
(I wanted to love this, and Yoko, as much as bookelfe did, but I didn't. I felt better about that after I went back and reread her post on it, and her comments about why she identified so strongly with Yoko--identifying with a character is always YMMV, and I'm not that person. But I totally get the bit about it subverting fantasy tropes. It's fascinating for that, and the more I go back and look at it, the more I like the structure and plot. The prose of the translation is unimpressive, but the story is good).

The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind
(awww baby kirin. And, while reading this book, I found myself suddenly hugely in love with the entire universe--reading the second book made me love the first more, and made me desperately want more of the entire world, and all the characters. I begin to get used to Ono's mind, and I like it).


Graphic novels:
Foglio, Phil and Kaja: Girl Genius book four: Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams (holds up well on a reread).

Warren, Adam: Empowered vol. 5 (awwwwww fuckity.
But I'm relieved. I expected to cry a hell of a lot more than I did. I am simply grateful that I didn't cry more than I did. I think this series will eventually rip my beating heart from my chest and set it on fire, because that's what Adam Warren does to your heart. And you then say, "thank you sir, may I have another? Because I adore your clever writing, even though you obviously want to hurt me.")


Manga:

Akino Matsuri:
Genju no Seiza vols. 6-7 (was that another PSOH ref with the kirin? Say it's so, Akino!).
Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo vol. 5

Mori Kaoru: Emma vols. 8-9 (oh shit the Meredith bedroom scene was so hot! There is no sex, although there is sexiness, but the intimacy--emotional and physical--is so pure and tangible I kept having to put the book down and go oof).

Ninomiya Tomoko: Nodame Cantabile vols. 15-16.

Otsuka Eiji, writer, Yamazaki Housui, artist: Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service vol. 9

Takaya Natsuki: Fruits Basket vol. 22

Umino Chica: Honey & Clover vol. 4.

Urasawa Naoki: Pluto vol. 5 (and here I'd just boasted to my LCS guy that I knew everything that was gonna happen because I didn't see Urasawa deviating from the basic structure of the plot as outlined in Tezuka's The Greatest Robot on Earth. So far, he hasn't, but this is fucking Urasawa, man. He's a master of suspense. He will surprise you, and he will make you hang. And he'll do it well. It's why he's awesome and we love him.

Urasawa Naoki: 20th Century Boys vol. 4

Watanabe Taeko;
Kaze Hikaru vol. 11

Comments

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

Re: Emp, Vol. 5, ha ha, yeah, I had much the same reaction. I couldn't say which sequence did it the most for me, although the friendship between Emp and Ninjette was so wonderfully portrayed in this edition. And finally finding out Mindfuck's story, and seeing it end was so, so sad. Still loved the book, though. :)

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

I'd been really liking Mindfuck, and I love her fuller characterization and backstory in this volume, so, there's that. But I'd heard a lot of "oh my god, this volume is so heartbreaking," and I'd psyched myself up to expect something even more gut-wrenching than this (the sequence on the station with the hand...eeuurgh. TERRIFYING). So my primary reaction was just relief!

[skygiants]

a.) Talisman Ring! It is so adorable. I love Heyer best when she is basically sticking people in an inn and forcing them to turn into a wacky affectionate family, and Talisman Ring is really good for that.

b.) Man, you are absolutely right, I would love it if DWJ did something more pan-mythic - I doubt she ever will at this point, but it would be really cool. The closest she ever gets to playing with non-Western tropes is the Arabian Nights stuff she does with Goddess-Millie and Castle in the Air, and even then she's pretty blatantly working off of Western translations and perceptions of the stories (which is even lampshaded with Christopher reading The Arabian Nights in school.)

c.) I am glad you are liking the Twelve Kingdoms world, too! I am alwyas a little bit torn about recommending Sea of Shadows, because on the one hand I want to shove it into people's hands because I loved it passionately and clearly EVERYONE MUST READ IT NOW, and on the other hand I really don't expect anyone else to love it like I did because it was such a personal identification experience for me. But the world is so awesome, right? And I am so excited for the different stories to come together in later books!

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

c.) I've been watching the anime--I'm almost at the end of the first arc, covering the first novel, and it is alternately lovely and immensely frustrating where it deviates from the novel (I have NOTES. Some of them are in ANGRY ALL CAPS. I'll post them as soon as I finish the first arc)--and it is sort of burning my obsession with this whole world and worldview into my skull. The divine right stuff alone sets me muttering to myself for hours, and the more I go over Yoko and her arc, the more invested I feel in her as a protagonist. I was not Yoko's larva-self when I was a kid, and I do pretty well like the adult person that I am, but my god, I want to be Yoko's adult persona when I grow up. She's fine.

[skygiants]

I love the person Yoko grows into, so, so very much. I am so torn about watching the anime - I think my current plan is to wait until the fourth book comes out (February, if I am not mistaken!) and watch it then, since the anime only covers up to the fourth book anyways (and gritting my teeth against potential angry allcaps-inducing changes!)

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

When I mentioned to a friend that I'd read and liked the first two novels, she sent me links to what appear to be pretty solid fan translations of the rest. Any interest?

At this point, I will hold off on reading any more novels until I've finished the anime, because my sense of the chronology and sequence will get thoroughly fucked up if I don't. I would rather have read the other books first, like you're planning to do, but I was too impatient to wait. Dumb of me.

Apparently, by the way, TP is releasing them out of their original publication order, or so I gather--the first novel was about Taiki, and I think chronologically takes place after both Sea of Wind and Sea of Shadows; the anime reordered some stuff, and TP's releases are mirroring that. Which I suppose makes sense.

[skygiants]

aaaah don't tempt me I am trying to be good! I may hit you up for that after the fourth one comes out though if I find myself too impatient.

Heh, well, I do not blame you for not wanting to wait!

. . . and really? Wow, I would not have guessed! I think I am kind of glad they published it the way they did - Sea of Shadows was a super strong intro to the series, for me.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

yeah, I'm holding off, too, and also trying to be good. I totally did not ask her for them, and feel kind of awkward going, "gosh thanks, but I was okay waiting, actually". It's rejecting a well-meant gift, you know? Like the time my straight-edge parents got married and all their hippie friends pooled up to give them a big bag of pot. Two days before they were going to drive to Louisiana. With NY license plates. In the seventies.

If I'd realized that the third novel was out already, I might have put off the anime, but I was seriously craving more story, and I have just hit the point in the anime where it starts mixing in stuff from novels beyond the ones I've read, so if I stop and read any more books now, I'll end up being seriously confused by the re-sequencing of stuff I already know, and characters being places and meeting people that they shouldn't.

Yeah, I have oodles and oodles of love for Taiki, but even though my full-on adoration for the whole thing didn't hit until I was done with Sea of Wind, I think Sea of Shadows is a good way to start the story, because Yoko and Yoko's arc are just so fabulous. Clearly the animators agreed, although they seemed to think it somehow needed HELP and in that they are MAD.

[skygiants]

Heh, yeah, I so know that feeling. . . . okay, not the feeling of getting married and being given a giant bag of pot, but YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

Oh man, I can just imagine, yeah! That PLUS extra characters and not knowing what's part of the original and what's not could get really perplexing. And hey, this way, if that part of the anime arc is not quite as good as the books, you'll never know until you actually read the books, so really you will get full satisfaction out of both! Which may be a better way to go about it.

YES SERIOUSLY. Yoko = MORE THAN awesome enough to carry the series without giving her some dead weight to carry around. And while I love Taiki and Taiki's arc, it's not quite as subversive as Yoko's, either. Like, I don't think the world would have stood out to me so much if I'd read Taiki's first and then Yoko's, because Taiki accepts it a lot more easily than Yoko does, if that makes sense.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

We've always known that fan translations, like pot, are a gateway drug to a life of hardcore crime danced upon the trampled bodies of starving crack babies.

And Yoko's story is more dramatically interesting, also, what with all the mortal peril and running around the countryside meeting mostly very terrible people, and having hideous, soul-destroying adventures. Taiki's story is positively domestic in contrast. I think it works well as sort of a follow-up expansion on how this divine ordinance mechanism is supposed to work.*

*I mean, it sounds so neat and cold and didactic, but almost from the beginning, we know about wassername--Joyei? The queen of Kei before Yoko? The one who was in love with Keiki, I mean--the one who was properly chosen by the kirin, and who should have had what it took to be a good monarch, but who failed quite horribly, instead. For whatever reason--because she lacked confidence, because she wasn't encouraged or supported by people who understood her and knew how to help her, because she didn't go through the right character-building experience/trauma like Yoko, because just having the potential to succeed doesn't guaranteed success--she didn't step up to the responsibilities of monarchy, and when Keiki, trying to adapt to her needs, offered her more emotional intimacy and support, she obsessively fixated on him and turned into an murderous monster. And there's also Kou, who we know had ruled for several decades before his prejudices ran his kingship and his country and his kirin into death and ruin. So clearly, what the divinely-inspired kirin are drawn to are merely the qualities that indicate the potential for kingly greatness, not a predetermination of same. Which is ever so much more interesting than the alternative.

[skygiants]

A friend offered me the body of a starving crack baby to use as a DDR mat the other day and I was not sure how to politely say "thanks, but I think I'm okay." :( These things are difficult!

I totally agree with you - I think one of the things that make the world so fascinating is that everyone knows that the whole divine-right thing is no guarantee that the king is going to grow into the person that they need to me. It's this really interesting juxtaposition of predestination and free will - and part of what makes Taiki's story interesting in the second book, too, is that you know from the first one that even though it seems like everything has worked mostly all right, and Taiki and his king are doing great, something is going to go terribly wrong by the time Yoko gets there.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Simple, you just say, "Thank you for your generous offer, but I have one in the trunk of my car already." See, if you read enough etiquette columnists, you begin to get the hang of this kind of thing.

Also, it suddenly strikes me that if you know about the kirin and the swear-to-never-desert-my-post-before-your-throne bit in advance, you lose out on the awesome WTF aspect of the "Uh, Yoko, I think you're the queen of Kei" scene, and the whole novel might read differently. I enjoyed being as surprised and flabbergasted as Yoko about that.